Barbara's Meanderings: writing

Pirate Radio Brings Me Back to the '60s

Julie Maloney Sunday, November 15, 2009

I know I should be writing and the guilt is biting into me like tiny pinches all last night and today, but I'll be back to it after writing this post. :) See my current NaNo total on the sidebar, but for those who don't want to look it is 18, 237 words so far. I want to be over 20,000 words by the end of tonight and hopefully I will spurt ahead in the next week. Hope all of you who are doing NaNo with me are able to write and that it is smooth and fun. Though I have to admit that sometimes writing isn't fun, though as I think back on the experience it's like a beautiful memory.LOL

Yesterday we went to see "Pirate Radio" in a theater we usually don't frequent. But the times matched and we were close so we went there. The seats in this theater are different, because they are slanted back so when you sit you are automatically forced into an angle. It's almost like your chair had been tipped back and of course you can go back further too. But the strange part about this is that they were very comfortable during the movie once I got used to it. Normal modern movie theater seats have the back loose so you can lean backward, but in these the seat tips back. So I spent awhile acclimating myself to these.:)

"Pirate Radio" is a movie that is best appreciated by people who have either lived through the 1960's or have a good knowledge of the music and history of this period. Based on a true story about the brave people who had radio stations that played rock music, banned in Great Britain in that time, this movie explores the every day life of those people. They couldn't broadcast on land, so they did it from ships out beyond the three mile limit so they wouldn't be touched. For someone who lived in America during that time period and actually listened to what they called alternative radio, it's hard to understand not being able to listen freely. However, in the movie they mentioned that over 25 million people listened to the pirate radio stations every day. These stations had to be listened to in locked rooms or in the middle of the night in the privacy of your own home. People listened in groups and danced and sang along. It was a real fan experience with people choosing their favorite DJ's.

The movie goes into what it was like for the hard working broadcasters on a ship out at sea. The tone is light and the story brings a layer to the movie that transcends the music. Though the music is so great! It starts in 1966 when the British government decided it wanted to get rid of pirate radio stations. Kenneth Branagh is a member of the government who needs to exterminate the station. I researched it a little bit and there were more than one of these stations broadcasting out there. But his performance is so incredible, because I didn't even realize who he was until after a few scenes. With his hair slicked back and in a suit of the period, he certainly looks the part. I think he even gained a little weight for the role too. There is not a drop of sexiness in this character at all.:) Also in the movie and I'm not counting, but she's been in several movies this year, Emma Thompson. She has a small part, but she makes the most of it.:) January Jones has a cameo role too, and she plays it well.

But even though the movie is one of the best I have seen this year, what holds it together is the soundtrack made up of every classic rock song you ever heard. The movie starts with The Kinks and you hear Beatles songs a great deal, because at that time I think they had four or five songs that went to number one. Music fills the movie almost like another character and it is constantly on in the background. We have all heard these songs so much that they are a part of our life and especially with The Kinks, who we saw a great deal in concert later in the decade, I could picture them doing their thing on stage.

I think it's better not to give the story, but I will say if you love rock music and "WKRP in Cincinnati", you will love this movie. There is a lot about the workings of a radio station and you get behind the scenes and inside the lives of all of the people who inhabit the ship that houses "Radio Rock". Though as Ben Fong - Torres quotes another writer saying in his review: "It wasn't about rock and roll. It just used rock and roll." it made me leave the theater with a smile and for me that is a great movie. Don't we all need something to make us smile these days?:)

Can't get into the change in the times yet. The sun started to set before 5:00PM today and I'm not ready to crawl into my house for winter yet. Nights seem to be endless and they will only get worse as we get toward the beginning of winter. If I get up late I only have a few hours of daylight, so I'm going to have to go to bed earlier just so I can see more daylight!:) Of course as the nights get longer the earlier the sun rises. So if I stay up late enough I can see daylight too.LOL

Have to get back to writing, because those words won't write themselves.:) Until the next time hope all of you had a great weekend and are staying healthy and warm or cool if you live in a warmer climate.:) The temperature changes are also strange too. One day it is in the 40's and today it was 65 degrees. Ah global climate change!!

Thank you to my faithful readers and to the new people who are following me. I hope you had a chance to listen to my October radio show on Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages. My November show, which will be on Tuesday, November 24th will feature Kim Richards Gilchrist who is the co-founder of Damnation Books and Julie Maloney, who has founded a group called Women Reading Aloud. Julie will discuss how she came to found her group and what the group hopes to achieve. On my October show Karen Hunter and I discussed the idea of "authenticity". Julie Maloney founded her group on this idea. It should be a fun show.:)

My December show is going to be all about a wonderful group called Milspeak. It is made up of service people from the armed forces. A woman named Sally Drumm formed this group of people who wanted to write and now there is a book out called Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience with all of their writing. Unlike previous shows I am devoting the entire show to these writers. It should be a great show and I am looking forward to meeting all of these new writers. I hope you will join me. Just click on the icon on the sidebar or go to Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages for November.

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Monty Python, NaNoWriMo, and I Get Scammed!!!

Davies-Turner Saturday, October 31, 2009

You know I started this blog to talk about things that happen in my life and how events affect me. In the process I have also talked about my writing and other people's writing and highlighted some wonderful blogs. I have also met some great people and found that even though I consider my writing a series of mad meanderings a lot of you enjoy reading it.:) In fact, one person, Margaret whose blog is called Meditation and discusses its uses in your life, said that it was like "an online magazine". I thought I would share that with anyone who doesn't read the comments here.

I have learned to read the comments for everyone's blog, because I have learned so much from comments and I have actually met a lot of great people from them. I love new visitors and especially people like Margaret from whom I can learn so much. In some ways she reminds me of my friend Marilyn Campiz, writer of Lotus Sutra Chronicles, who is also a world traveler and has a blog. There is the same calm feeling with beautiful pictures. I highlighted her blog here in this meandering post: "Thoughts on a Sunny Day". Go ahead and check out her blog, because her pictures are not only beautiful, but they tell a story of life in Korea we never see.

Now for something completely different.:) How many of you have been watching the series about Monty Python? It brings back those crazy shows, when I had never seen anything like this group. It also explains a lot of the reasons for their relationships and the precursors to their show. If you have never seen Monty Python go to a much earlier post of mine: "The Good Banker and My Favorite Store", in which I use the same expression as the first sentence of this paragraph. All Monty Python fans know this sentence very well. To transition between hilarious skits they used this sentence. John Cleese, who was able to say this with a straight face all the time in his clipped elite British accent, is probably one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen. Just an aside to let you know that John Cleese recently celebrated his 70th birthday on October 27th.

This new mini-series "Almost the Truth" shows why the show was so amazing. With four out of the five principal guys from the original show there, it was fun hearing them speak about their experiences doing the show. I haven't been able to see the whole series but hope to see it in its entirety when it comes out on DVD from Netflix. These are the most original and side-splitting funniest comedians I have ever seen. If you haven't seen any of the bits they did you have to treat yourself to watching them on YouTube. The one I just linked you to is so hysterical I dare you not to laugh during this skit. It's a combination of the material, their timing, and all of their talents combined. Go ahead and watch all of them including the interviews with the older Eric Idle. You will see how hysterical and irreverent they are. Watch all of the best ones on the Monty Python page.

This week has been full of crazy things. One of the craziest is what happened to me on Monday. As most of you know, I have been looking for a job and a way to make money for over a year. So when this job offer came in an email for a liason for a company overseas I checked it out. Certainly I wasn't about to give my name to spammers. The company, Davies-Turner turned out to be a legitimate company and I filled out the information with my name and address and sent it by email to what I thought was the company's HR department. This was in August, and I completely forgot about it. However, Monday morning a FEDEX envelope overnighted was delivered to me. Inside was a check for $3, 750.00 that showed another company's name in the letterhead. Immediately following this delivery I received an email from this so-called Davies-Turner representative telling me to expect a check and to keep 10% for myself while sending 90% by Western Union to another address. Of course, I didn't do anything. With a lawyer for a husband you learn never to do anything without checking. I called the company on the check and they were a real company. But they told me they had problems last year with bogus checks and that this was not issued by them.

Darn, I thought, I could have really used the money.:) But now I realized that I had been scammed. I went online and found the exact email that had been sent to me as an example of a scam. Funny, this wasn't on Snopes.com, the website I usually use to check if something is real or not. But it was found on Google and then my daughter, who is a research expert, found more about the scam and what I should do about it. So by the afternoon I was talking with the US Attorney Generals office and explaining what had happened to me. I had a copy of the check and the FEDEX envelope that I had sent to the company on the check. The US Attorney General was only interested in whether I had cashed the check or given them my Social Security number. Neither of which I had done. I am naive, but I'm not crazy.

This has really caused me to be very wary of giving any information anymore. The scammers used a real company, Davies-Turner, which has a legitimate business. Then they scammed another business by forging a check with their name. They sent it from another person who did not have a real phone number. (I called the number on the FEDEX envelope immediately). If you clicked on the link for Davies-Turner you can see how someone might think this job was real. If you get a job offer from any company don't just go to their website. What I should have done was search the internet for their name and check the listings underneath the first one. Here is what is there for Davies-Turner. The person who is supposedly sending the email is the real name of the man who is really at this company. It's very tricky so you have to be very careful. I post this as a cautionary tale to anyone who answers this kind of email. Be very, very wary, because you might wind up in my situation. I am sending a copy to the FBI and will also post on as many sites as possible to warn other people from getting involved.

If I had cashed this check as the scammer requested I would have had to pay not only the amount of the check but a fine as well. The Attorney General's office told me it would have been over $5,000.00. Yikes! So, crisis averted, but that did start my week off with a bang!!

The rest of the week I have been occupied with thinking about the next chapter for my WIP, When My Life Changed. Tonight I had a discussion with my daughters about how I should end the book and they gave me some good ideas. Whenever I am really stuck I go to them, because though they are grown they still are closer to the minds of teens than I am.:) Bouncing ideas off of them helped and I think I have a way to end this, finally. Of course, I won't know until I start writing the chapter. Then I probably have two or three more until the end. But we'll see. Writing isn't an exact science. LOL

Speaking of writing, this might be my last post in October and November is going to be very sparse. So if you are missing me I am not posting because I will be doing NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month and occurs every year from November 1st to November 30th. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month! I did it last year and won. I posted my winning badge from 2008 here to gloat about it.:) Also the winning certificate everyone who wins receives. I plan to add ones from 2009! Wish me luck!

Until the next time, which might be way into November, have a Happy Halloween and if you're doing NaNo good luck to you! Please add me as a friend there. My username is: lionmother. It's grueling but worth it. Welcome to all the new readers and thank you again to the readers who have continued to follow my meanderings.

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The Muse Online Writers Conference Is Over!

elizabeth spann craig Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Some of you may have wondered why I didn't post anything new this week. I was trying to attend the Muse Online Writers Conference and my time was spent reading and interacting with new people and learning about writing topics. However, due to my family needing me for everything this week I didn't spend as much time as I wanted at the conference.

Let me explain this conference for anyone who is unfamiliar with it. Imagine going to a writing conference in your pjs and having access to not only fellow writers but editors, publishers and agents. Yes, you can meet editors, publishers and agents as well as fellow writers at a usual writers conference. But can you attend in your pjs? Can you make dinner, do the wash, watch TV, talk to your children, get phone calls and still be at a conference? That is the Muse Online Writers Conference.

The Muse Online Writers Conference is the brainchild of Lea Schizas who must seriously have at least a few clones, because the woman is like Wonder Woman. She has created this conference for anyone who in the past was unable to attend a regular conference due to travel issues or being housebound or the expense. The conference is free and Lea invites writers, authors, publishers, editors, and agents to give workshops. The workshops run for the entire week with presenters doing planned chats and participating in a forum where participants have more access to the presenters. The presenters give out handouts that are the jewels of the conference. When you are signed up for the conference you are given a chance to gather as many handouts as you can download onto your computer. These are full of information and contain links to all sorts of wonderful things for writers. Even if you can't attend even one chat, the forum and the handouts are enough.

Unlike most conferences the emphasis is not all on marketing and published authors. Anyone who feels they have the ability to carry a chat and/or a workshop is invited to present. The variety of presenters is astounding and it's amazing that this can be put together by one person. This year Lea added a chance for writers to pitch their finished manuscripts to the publishers that were there. Of course, I learned about this too late or else I wasn't paying enough attention to it to do it. So I missed out. But we have another chance, because just as in a regular conference, publishers have opened their submissions for just attendees of this conference. We have a secret word and you won't get it out of me.:) I think I have written about my secret keeping abilities here, but if I haven't you have to take my word that I can keep a secret a long, long time!

The other great thing about the conference is all the new people you can meet. I found out there are at least three people who live near me and that was so exciting. I connected with all of them and I hope to meet them in person. At the end of the conference there is an awesome end of conference chat party too. You can actually have everything you would have at a conference with none of the expense or aggravation. I am definitely signing up for next year and all writers no matter if you are published or not should try to sign up too. I am going to be interviewing Lea in 2010 on my radio show, Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages.

So here's the good news for me. During this conference I took a workshop with Margot Finke, who some of you may know has a very respected name in children's writing. The title of this was: "Write As Tight As Granny's New Girdle". With a title like this who wouldn't want to take this workshop? Margot and I have been friends for years so I thought this would be fun. We had to post one page of our novel and she was going to comment and critique it. She does it professionally, so I was very nervous. I gave her the first couple of paragraphs of If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor and prayed I wouldn't need to change too much and that it was ready to be sent again to a publisher. Well, I am happy to say that she loved my excerpt and only told me to cut a few words and put in one word. I was so ecstatic I did the happy dance.LOL Any writers out there will know what I mean!

I have renewed confidence that this can be published and I am sending it out this week again. I mean the worst that can happen is I will get another rejection. At least it won't be lonely. I already have three there already.:)

That reminds me to tell you that this week I will be doing my second radio show and one of my guests is going to be Elizabeth Spann Craig. She will be discussing her novel, Pretty Is As Pretty Dies, which is a murder mystery set in a small southern town. I read it and enjoyed learning about life in that town. Elizabeth will also be my guest author here on the blog next week.

Her bio:

Like her characters, Elizabeth Spann Craig’s roots are in a small, Southern town. She grew up in Anderson, South Carolina, where she spent most of her childhood in the county library, staggering out with books by the armful.

Her magazine articles have appeared in both England and the United States.

She’s the mother of two and currently lives in Matthews, North Carolina. Between juggling room mom duties, refereeing play dates, and being dragged along as chaperone/hostage on field trips, she dreams of dark and stormy nights beside stacks of intriguing mysteries with excellent opening lines.

Here is a short review of the book:

Book Review of Pretty Is As Pretty Dies

Pretty is As Pretty Dies is the story of what happens when a small southern town is suddenly rocked by a series of murders. The first happens to one of the wealthiest and most fe

ared women in the town in the church. The second occurs a few days after her death to one of the parishioners. Was someone bumping off the churchgoers of this town or was it a serial killer on the loose? Or was there something political involved here? The dead woman has so many enemies it is hard to see how she was able to stay alive this long.

Unfortunately for the police chief his mother, an active octogenarian, is on the case. This causes a problem for him, because his mother is always getting in his way. Could the editor of the town’s newspaper where the dead woman had a column, help to solve the mystery? Or is it the brilliant award winning writer from New York who shared column space with her and the chief’s mother? Was it a case of writing jealousy or did it have to do with the dead woman’s son?

All of these questions are answered in this short novel packed with excitement and tension. Very much in the vein of Miss Marple, the police chief’s mother weaves in and out of people’s lives trying to solve this mystery. In the process we learn about almost every member of the town and as the book progresses it is hard not to form your own opinion about who murdered this woman and why.

If you like the character of the police chief’s mother, Elizabeth Craig has written several novels featuring her and her brand of sleuthing. Also when you read the book you will understand why there are gnomes on the cover.

****************************************************************************

Please join me and Elizabeth Spann Craig on Thursday, October 22nd at 3PM Central time when we discuss this book and her writing and get to know her a little better. There will be another guest on the show to be announced. Hope to have lots of you listening. Remember if you miss the show at the time it is on live you can still hear it as a podcast on the website.

Until the next time, thank you to the new readers who are now reading my meanderings.:) Welcome and I hope that you continue to enjoy all of my ravings.:) To readers who have been here thank you too. Everyone wish me luck on my submission. Ah, can you imagine hundreds of fingers and toes crossed for me?LOL

Please leave comments. I would love to know if any of my new readers met me this week. Leave a comment here and let me know how you found out about this blog.

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Thoughts on a Rainy Sunday!

blogging Sunday, March 29, 2009

This is just a very short post to let everyone know the winner of the book drawing from last week's interview with Tim Hooker is:

madcapmaggie!!!

She will receive an autographed copy of Rocket Man: A Rhapsody of Short Stories from Tim Hooker. If the winner will please contact me I will give Tim your name and address and he will send it to you directly. I will post the name of the winner on my Facebook page too. In case the winner didn't get to read this blog post yet.:)

Congratulations and I hope that the next interview will have more commenters. Thank you to the people who did leave questions and comments.

Today was a day of dissenting. Looking back on the day it was probably because of the impending thunder storm. It rained all day lightly and there was a fog hanging over the whole landscape as we drove to Stew Leonard's for food. It only lasts about a month and then we have to go back and do it all over again.:) My daughters and I kept disagreeing over almost everything both going up there and coming home. Then when we had gotten home and dragged all the bags from the car and put the stuff away, I was upstairs when I heard this loud crash like the sky was literally cracking. Then the sky lit up and rain poured down faster and faster until it seemed that the roof wouldn't be able to hold all the pounding water that suddenly exploded from the clouds. It was literally an assault of rain!:) I hugged myself happy that I wasn't underneath it but safe in my dry house! It's little times like these that make you happy you are in the comfort of your own home.

Then all the anger and dissidence went away and we ate dinner in peace and calm. It was a good end to a very chaotic and stress-filled week.

I'm subbing Chapter 22 and maybe Chapter 23 of When My Life Changed to my critique group this week. Also this is going to be the week I'm resubbing my YA novel, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor. It will be going to an agent. Please keep your fingers crossed.:)

Until next time, have a great Monday!!! I'm trying to make my posts shorter.:) I will also talk about the movie we saw this weekend and a few other non-writing things next post. Again - Congratulations to madcapmaggie.:)

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A Tuesday Quikie

"Guardian" Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Interview with Tim Hooker on Thursday, March 26th

It's time to gear up again for a new guest author interview. As I promised I will be interviewing a new guest author every Thursday. Please remember the author is here all day and possibly the next day to answer any questions you may have.

Here is a little bit about Tim Hooker and you can

find out more about his life at his website. He is the editor of a multi-author blog and has three published books, the latest being Duncan Hambeth, Furniture King of the South. I am looking forward to interviewing Tim and hearing all about why he titled his book as he did.:)

Also coming, in two weeks I will be interviewing Katie Hines, whose book, Guardian, a middle grade urban fantasy, is coming out June, 2009. If you want to be interviewed next week let me know and I'll arrange it. Tim and Katie are part of the Red River Writers Blog Tour 2, which is happening through April.

Meanwhile, a quick review for The Heretic's Tomb by Simon Rose. I had hoped to be able to read one of Simon's books before the interview, but it arrived too late. Set in both fourteenth century England and present day London,The Heretic's Tomb combines history with adventure and suspense.

Imagine you were suddenly thrown into fourteenth century England during the outbreak of The Black Plague. This is what happens to Annie as she finds a part of an amulet in the ruins of an old abbey. The author gives a very thorough explanation of what life is like for people in that time period and shows the devastation that the plague has wrought for almost everyone. Lady Isabella has lost her family during the early plague outbreak, but she is spared and tends to the sick with her home remedies. She lives in the abbey after her tragedy and is revered by the folk she tends. Much happens to her as she attempts to cure the sick and she must also suffer the wrath of the lord of the manor who searches for a way to stop her. In the course of his story, Simon Rose describes the world of the fourteenth century in explicit detail. He really throws you into the muddy streets of a typical town. If I were teaching this time period to a middle grade class I would be sure to have this book on hand! Also, it is a very quick and exciting read for anyone. If you want to read this go to amazon.com.

As far as my own writing is going, I am waiting to sub my chapter for this month to my critique group. I was finally able to start writing the party scene and I did it when I was sitting in the car waiting for my daughter. I had nothing to do and my other daughter, the one who had driven on the way over was playing on her IPod Touch. If you need to wait for someone an IPod Touch with games loaded on it is the best way to do it. They have all kinds of games. The ones I like best are where you have customers and you have to wait on them and either do their hair or give them chocolates. You can spend almost an hour playing these games. Of course there is Scrabble and Word Twist, but those require too much thinking.:) Also, you move up in levels in the hair salon and chocolate games. So I didn't have anything to do and took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began Chapter 23. I only have a page, but that will be enough to write the whole chapter. For me all I need is a sentence and I can usually write the whole chapter.

Welcome to my new readers and thank you to the readers who continue to follow my crazy ravings.:) Please leave a comment if you stop by. I always check to see if there are any new comments and answer them as soon as possible. Just a quick ad for both of the networks on which I'm listed: Blog Catalog and Facebook Networked Blogs. Also look for my name on the women's blogger network. I'm meeting a lot of new friends all over the world and finding so many blogs to read that I can't keep up. I will be highlighting a new blog tomorrow. Could it be yours? Until the next time have a great day!!!

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Why I Love Lions

Fortunoff's Saturday, February 28, 2009

A Fortunoff's Store

Wouldn't this make a great postcard?

First of all, this is my post for Postcard Friendship Friday. It isn't a postcard, but it would make a great one, I think!

The title of this blog is Why I Love Lions. Now that doesn't mean that I'm ready to go and hug one, but I do love pictures of them and I collect statues of all kinds of lions. I've been doing it for twenty-four years ever since I turned a certain age. Here's the story. I wouldn't get out of bed the day I turned this age and this was a problem. I had small children ages six and three. So staying in bed wasn't really an option. My husband had lost his patience and called my mother who lived across the street to come over. She strode into my bedroom and demanded I get out of bed. Now you have to realize that my mother even in her sixties, was a very formidable woman. She had a voice that when raised could break glass.:) Even though I was so much older, it reminded me of when she would shout me into or out of a chair. She was powerful and even my father, not here anymore as is my mother passed on, was afraid of her voice.

So she used that voice to get me out of bed, but I didn't budge. This birthday took the heart out of me. I felt old and tired and couldn't face the day. So my mother bribed me. She told me she'd get me anything I wanted and suggested we go shopping in Fortunoff's, a large department store that had not yet expanded to where it is today. That is another story I will address after this. So I got dressed and we went to Fortunoff's leaving my husband to watch both of the girls. His plan had backfired!

At Fortunoff's we went directly to the jewelry section, because anything to me meant jewelry. And by the way, after that day, I decided that the best birthday present is a piece of jewelry and my family knows it.:) So I browsed the glass counters and found the perfect present, a gold lion pendant! My mother bought a gold chain to go with it and when I placed this necklace around my neck something changed in me.:) My birthday is in July and I am a Leo in astrology. Leos are powerful and of course our symbol is the lion as in the constellation. When I put on that necklace I realized that I was entering a period in which I should be proud to be my age. I was strong and powerful and my experience only made me better. I was healed!! From that moment I have only taken off my necklace once, and that was when I had to go into the hospital to have my gall bladder removed. It is my symbol and keeps me strong. Whenever I lose hope or feel powerless I touch my necklace and feel better. I also have a lion ring and postcards of lions, stuffed lions, and a glass lion given to me as a present. I am a Leo hear me roar!!!

Sadly, to bring this back to the present, the store where I bought my lion necklace is going out of business. It's another example of an end of an era. Fortunoff's began in Brooklyn with a small store and I started going there with my mother when I was just a girl, since we lived in Brooklyn. When Fortunoff's moved to Long Island, we followed it out there and shopped there frequently. It was my favorite store, because it had everything. At the time there was no Target, and WallMart had not moved into the cities. So this store with everything from jewelry to cooking ware and linens, plus a restaurant for a light lunch in between shopping, was so great! You could spend a whole day there and still not see everything. Then Fortunoff's started expanding and moved to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and eventually one of them moved to where I am now living, White Plains, NY. Recently, the Fifth Avenue store went out of business. It had become the flagship store, though the Long Island store was the main one. Now the White Plains store is going out of business. It occupies the top floors over a Cheesecake Factory and a Whole Foods store as well as Morton's Steak House and a maternity store. There's a huge parking lot on every floor. I can't imagine what it will be like when only the first floor stores are left.

My daughter and I went shopping there today when we saw there was a Going Out of Business Sale. But they were only discounting ten per cent. Plus, though we like the store, their service in this area hasn't always been great. But we did get some fun things and one thing I really needed - a new pot. So it was a successful trip and we had fun, but there was a sadness to it. More people than I'd ever seen in that place crowded into the store after it had been practically empty the last time I'd been there. I'm hoping that they will start discounting things further as they get down to the wire. Though I am not looking forward to the day it leaves.

It's another example of how this economy is affecting everyone. It's just sad when it's your favorite store! But it's even worse when the store carries the last good memories I have of my mother. My mother and I went shopping a few months before she succumbed to the cancer that was eventually going to invade her entire body. But on the day we were in Fortunoff's we had a great time shopping for ourselves and my family - the last good day we ever spent together.

On another note, I have still not written the chapter on Amber's party and keep envisioning it though. I know I just have to put fingers to the keyboard and write it. I'll let you know when it's done.

Meanwhile, have a great weekend and welcome to my new readers. Please leave a comment and I'll try to answer as soon as possible. Don't know what we'll do this weekend, but will probably post before the end. Until then enjoy!!!

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